Ever since Zhou Yuan began studying the two matters of eating and sleeping, his reputation for madness grew louder still.
You couldn't really blame the villagers for making a fuss; Zhou Yuan's behavior was simply too strange.
Before, though his words were outrageous and his hand vicious, he could at least converse normally and lived in a recognizable way.
Now he treated a steamed bun like a treasure — something he could finish in a few bites, he insisted on chewing slowly and savoring, as if eating some rare delicacy.
If it were only that, the villagers would still have called the boy honest and earnest, plainly a solid fellow.
But he didn't eat one meal slowly — he ate a few bites per meal, twenty or thirty times a day.
The frequency terrified the men watching him; they thought his madness had worsened, that he'd lost all sense of hunger and fullness.
"Shitou, don't do anything desperate. If you stuff yourself to death, even the ghosts in the underworld will laugh at you.
If you want something good to eat, just say so — no need to scare us with one new trick after another."
"Uncle Dahuang, you've lived your fill, so you can't understand the heart of a man who hasn't.
This is taking precautions. Eat as many meals as I can before the army, so I'm not left without even a bun once I'm in.
Still, you've got a point. Fix me something good tomorrow — maybe after a few good meals I'll stop fretting over buns."
"Pah, you melon-brained boy, what kind of talk is that? What do you mean I've lived my fill — you've lived your fill.
Outrageous, utterly outrageous. If the army won't give a man even a single bun, who the hell would fight for those lordlings?
Even King Yama doesn't send hungry ghosts on errands — a camp that size won't be short of a mouthful for you."
"That's not certain. If I were the general, I'd send a few cavalry just to burn the grain stores — guaranteed to leave the other side howling with hunger."
"Where do you pick up these crooked notions? We're doing labor service, not going to war.
You know what military service is? Relieving old soldiers, hauling grain, digging trenches, felling timber, mending walls. You've got to be picked to be a fighting soldier at all."
"That's grim. I was wondering why you weren't the least bit worried, old man — turns out the village has plenty of young blood, so you won't be shoved to the very front."
"Heh heh, that's the good of being old. You young pups, take note."
Seeing that Zhou Yuan could still converse normally, his madness not yet eating into his brain, Zhao Dahuang let out a great sigh of relief.
This sinister boy had a crooked head on him; best to send him off to the camp sooner rather than later, or he'd surely stir up some great trouble.
The three men watching Zhou Yuan thought Zhao Dahuang had talked him round.
But who'd have guessed the boy said one thing and did another, as though his head simply couldn't govern his body.
Early the next morning, Zhou Yuan not only ran his old trick again but grew even more abstract.
"Lads, I mulled it over all night and grasped the true meaning of the martial Dao.
The way of training prizes tension and release, stillness and motion. The motion-work we all put in a couple of rounds of — the main thing is the stillness-work.
Think about it: both stillness and rest — put the two together, and isn't that sleeping?"
"From today, I'll practice blade and spear and sleep whenever I please — guaranteed to forge a fine physique."
The three village men looked at one another, at a loss for a moment how to answer.
"This is bad, Uncle Dahuang — I actually think Shitou's got a point. Have I gone mad too?"
"Bang!"
Zhao Dahuang landed a heavy thump on the village man's chest, his eyes as if they'd devour him.
"Nonsense — what rot are you spouting? That's called being clever, understand? You've gotten clever too.
If you don't want to be the famous wit of all the villages for ten li around, then mind that foul mouth of yours."
"Ooh... I get it. I'm the most honest, not the least bit clever.
Uncle Dahuang, how about we switch someone else to watch Shitou? Carry on like this and sooner or later he'll scourge us too."
"Let's wait and see. Shitou's just gotten a bit clever — his heart shouldn't be bad......"
Watching the three men deliberately keep their distance, Zhou Yuan knew he'd laid the medicine on a touch too thick.
His way of living had changed too fast, and with no logic to it; if not for the conscription quota hanging over them, the villagers would surely have kept well away.
"Hah — and so it begins. Hold on tight, lads."
Having laid his excuses, Zhou Yuan formally began to stop behaving like a person.
His daily rhythm became: run, eat, sleep; practice blade, eat, sleep; practice spear, eat, sleep......
If he only trained by day, the three men could have held out; the trouble was he trained by night too.
The village men simply couldn't fathom it — does a clever fellow not even need to sleep at night? It left them afraid to sleep either.
What they didn't know was that Zhou Yuan, taking his first crack at segmented sleep, wasn't used to it either; his brain was even fogged and mushy as paste.
But the existence of the attribute panel let him grasp his own state of health, and the pursuit of turning things into skills filled him with drive.
With nothing to distract him, he soon shifted his daily routine.
And gradually entered a peculiar state — not any sort of enlightenment, but the focus of a man who ignores all outside things and chases his goal with all his might.
His focus was soon rewarded; the first result to come back was eating.
【You have comprehended "Food Replenishment" and mastered a life skill.】
【Food Replenishment, Lv1 (1/10)】
【Effect: Eat with fine care to draw more nourishment from food; when the ingredients are rich in nutrients, recover a small amount of Health.】
"Draw nourishment more efficiently, and recover a little Health — this is simply wonderful.
The path of turning living skills into actual skills really does lead somewhere."
The appearance of "Food Replenishment" gave Zhou Yuan a certain capacity to recover health, and lent his training plan a new safeguard.
Looking at his health bar, down to a mere 91%, he resolved to find some tonics and repair the bodily damage all this frenzied training had caused.
"Shitou, what are you doing going out this late at night?"
Zhou Yuan's utterly irregular routine had tormented the three village men to the depths of misery.
In the end they decided the two younger men would keep Zhou Yuan company by day, running and carrying on, while the elderly Zhao Dahuang would rest by day and watch by night.
"Uncle Dahuang, I've had another insight. Martial training isn't only stillness and motion — it also calls for treating food and medicine as one source.
Without eating something good to mend the body, you're just wringing dry your own blood and qi.
You promised to make me something good, but after several days all you've managed is one chicken egg.
I know you've done your best, so I've decided to do it myself — and fix you a good mouthful too, to coax that stomach of yours."
"You melon-brained boy, how is it you're having insights all day long?
Don't go running wild. The neighbors aren't well-off either; quit scourging them."
"I know the neighbors aren't well-off. But some folks are, aren't they?
Come with me. Today I'll treat you to some meat — we'll rob the rich to aid the poor, borrow a little richness to relieve our bellies."
Zhao Dahuang stuck out his tongue and licked his cracked, dry lips. This night watch was all well and good, except it left a man so hungry his eyes turned green.
He was still waging his inner struggle, but his body had already followed Zhou Yuan of its own accord, out the door to forage.
Only when they neared a courtyard of tile-roofed house and earthen walls did Zhao Dahuang come to his senses.
"Shitou, this is the village head's house — we mustn't run wild here."
"It's fine. Old Li's got plenty to spare. I'll just borrow a chicken; I'll pay him back for sure in a hundred-odd years."
"A hundred-odd years? Then this is just stealing."
"How can a matter of martial training be called stealing? This is called borrowing.
Think how much Old Li's borrowed on the strength of being village head. If he can borrow, so can we."